Although I’m not a ginormous Interpol fan, I’ve been listening to them for a few years and have wanted to see them…for a while. Maybe not a few years but at least within the past 365 days. I was thinking that I just have to see them once so I’ll be happy, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them again and endure the sonic blasts spewing forth from loads of screaming fangirls.

But that’s part of the fun. I think. I mean, I have earplugs; what do I care? “PAUL, YOU’RE SEXY!” Yes, yes, he knows. There was a funny part before the first encore where two zealous fans’ screaming was interrupted by one of the girl’s questions; “Isn’t this ritual silly? I mean, we know the band’s going to come out again.” Hence, why I, the party pooper, don’t raise my hands and flail madly; someone else will do that for me. Heehee.

So obviously, the place was packed. Even though it was a sold out show, I think they still had tickets at the door for less than what just about every else had paid. Ooh well. I got there at 6 PM, knowing there’d be a long line, which there was, thus ensuring that there would be more humans than I’d prefer for there to be between me and the stage, but that’s alright. Waiting for two openers to entertain us was less alright, but “Boom Bip”:http://www.lexrecords.com/boom-bip/ definitely has a new fan (me…yes, because you needed clarification). I wasn’t very into the first opener, Child Ballads, not that they performed badly, but maybe a little awkwardly. Watching the lead singer push his mic around and around was somewhat distracting, or maybe his mic stand had issues.

At some point (maybe 10:30PM), Interpol came on stage. Actually, it was dark for a prolonged period of time, and then they came on stage. They played just about all of Antics (except for two songs…but I’m too lazy to actually find the setlist) and half of Turn On the Bright Lights, finishing off with Specialist, where my not-a-giant-fan-ness shone through as I couldn’t sing along with just about the rest of the audience. There was a lot of singing along, although I didn’t actually partake in any, choosing instead to stare at Paul’s sweat-drippy head and feel like I was about to collapse from …standing a lot and getting “noodly leg” syndrome. But it was still great, because they played “Not Even Jail,” which for whatever reason I have dubbed to be my favorite Antics track. They also played “Roland” which is one of my favorites from Turn On the Bright Lights (no one single song stands out for me on that album, but I like a bunch of them…a lot), although I think it’s just because of the beginning lyrics of butchers and knives (KNIFIN’ AROUND, HA HA HA, ow), after which I stop paying attention and go back into comotose mode.

Random thing: while everyone in the band sported black clothing, the keyboardist distanced himself from the regular band members by wearing a kelly green shirt. I wonder if that was intentional or if they had a discussion; “YOU CAN’T WEAR BLACK! Now wear this kermit-colored shirt. And stand in the corner.”

redness

I’m getting off track. Uh. Did I mention that the concert was awesome? Cos it was. If I had to rate it on a scale that I made up just now and has no value whatsoever, I’d put the concert a smidgen below “amazing”, since I heard some other fans say that. Maybe if I were closer it would’ve been amazing. IT’S MY FAULT FOR NOT BEING MORE AMAZED, DAMMIT! They’re great live, pretty intense. Paul looked insane a lot and I mean that in the best way one could look insane. Carlos bops around a lot, which I wasn’t expecting.

Final thoughts: as much as I like “Evil”, every time I hear it I just think of the creepy puppet from the music video. Seeing it live at least gives me different visuals, but in the back of my head, that pupper is lurking, ready to stab me with hospital instruments and swallow me whole with that ginormous mouth.